Lukaku: ‘We have to keep winning’
20 years of football, against the impulse and naivety of a guy that has been in top football for about three years but is still a young kid. Harsh? I don’t know – could get a yellow card for both and keep going.”
Mourinho also refused to criticise Pogba, who had scored penalties against Leicester and Brighton, and said it was up to the World Cup winner whether he remained on spot-kick duties.
He said: “I never blame a player for missing penalties. I blame the ones who refuse to go up there. Paul has scored some good ones for us.”
Mourinho handed his coat to a fan at full-time and again praised the supporters for making it “an easy week” after the home defeat by Spurs.
Lukaku, who missed a great chance for his first United hat-trick, said: “That was really big. In the last game we started well but didn’t take our chances. This time we did. We knew we had to grind out the result in the second half. We have character and we need to be more like that.
“The last game against Tottenham – we were disappointed. Today we did score and we have to keep winning to try to catch the teams above us. Now we go into the international break and can switch off a bit. The manager has time to analyse our performances.”
When asked if Mourinho would let the players “switch off”, Lukaku said: “Oh yes. He’s totally different behind the scenes and he’ll allow us to.”
On his penalty save, Hart said: “Paul’s good at what he does. He’s a player who likes to feel what he does. He makes decisions late. That’s his game. I checked his run-up. I’ve got my own technique against players like that and it worked.
“Frustrating is the word. I thought United played well in the first half. It’s an awful excuse but we were tired and they were on it.”